Barry Alvarez went on the record as saying that all Big Ten member schools have agreed that they will no longer play FCS schools in the non-con. Obviously this doesn't affect currently scheduled games, but no future games will be set against the lower division. Alvarez has sited the conferences overall weak non-cons as the reason.

Ties very much into OSU's stated goal of only playing "Big 6" conferences in the non-con so that its schedule strength will never keep it out of the playoff.

Posted by MikeT23 on 2/13/2013 10:11:00 AM (view original):While I don't like the 73-10 games, it's unfortunate for the FCS schools that could use the big payday.

A much better solution, IMO, is to play one in-state FCS school if possible. Perhaps require the Big 6 to play one so everyone is on equal footing.

I hear you and I don't think the schedule issue is so much that they play FCS, it is that they play FCS and they don't balance that out with a power. I mean if you played 1 FCS and then 3 games against even just middle of the road Big 6 conference opponents, I think it would balance out. A lot of the crappier teams in the conference just don't do that because they need the wins to get bowl eligible so they play 4 crappy opponents, and when one of them is a FCS it is a problem. The Big Ten is also supposedly going to 9 conference and just 3 non-con games and thus having 1 FCS is more problematic in that regard.

I can see it becoming an issue with 16 team conferences. You have 7 against your division, 2-3 against the other division. Then you have a rivalry game against a non-conference foe(ND/USC, Ga/GaTech, SC/Clemson, etc). There's not much room for error if you play 3 non-divisional conference games because you're at 11.

I forget who it was, a SC FCS team, that got trounced by FL or FSU and the AD said "Yes, we knew what would happen. But that game bought us a new locker room." I think the standard pay is something like 500k. And, for a program like App State that beat MI a few years ago, they were put on the map with that game. Who knew App State even played football before that upset?

I get that it is a lot of money for the FCS school, but the Big Ten school pays pretty much the same for a low level MAC school that do for a FCS school. And while the game probably isn't a lot different, the FBS crappy school is better for the schedule strength than the FCS school even if the FCS school is better.

Yeah, I'm looking at it from the little guy's perspective. I know some of them hope to move up to FBS one day and the only way that's happening is with facility upgrades. And, without that big payday, they'll never generate enough revenue to get there.